Anyone who has lost a pet knows the pain
POOR Miranda Hart. As the entire country goes quietly insane (not so quietly in some cases) under this interminable lockdown, she has lost her constant companion, Peggy, her dog.The 13-year-old shih tzu/ bichon frise cross became almost as well known as Miranda herself, but has passed away, leaving her so shaken that the poor woman has taken a career break to get away from it all.
As anyone who has built up a relationship with a pet will know, these little creatures tug the heartstrings in a way no other being can. As regular readers know, I am a cat person, not a dog one, and cats are notoriously more sparing in their affections than the canine. But even they cannot remain impervious to someone who feeds them regularly and even they cannot resist the odd head butt or purr.
And what human heart can resist those beseeching eyes and unabashed joy when they realise you’re not actually planning on starving them to death but are going to feed them, exactly as you have been doing twice a day for the past 15 years? To gain the trust of an animal is to win life’s lottery.And the pain can be terrible when they’re gone.
Pets don’t judge you. They don’t tell you you’re fat, having a bad hair day or are rubbish at your job; they don’t undermine you, criticise your cooking or sneer that their degree is better than yours.
It has always been no surprise that the Queen loves dogs and horses so much because they are her only companions who don’t know she’s the Queen: she can be assured of their affection because of the woman she is, rather than her status in life.
At the height of the Princess Diana troubles, the Queen was said once to have returned from walking the dogs, taken off her outerwear, heard about yet another calamity, put her outerwear back on and taken the dogs out for another walk. That woman is wise.
In the UK we famously have a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but only a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. We, a somewhat taciturn nation, clearly find in our four-legged friends a solace sometimes rare.
THAT is particularly so in these troubled times. When I wrote about the death of my cat, Mrs Peel, in these pages last year, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response, much greater than anything else I have ever experienced.
So spare a thought for poor Miranda. She’s got a Peggyshaped hole in her heart.